Ben's Guide: How to Cite Ben's Guide

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How to Cite Ben's Guide

Ben Franklin (1706-1790) When you use Ben's Guide (or other parts of the World Wide Web) for your research it is important to provide citations, just as you would for books, videos, periodicals, or other materials you use. Identifying sources in this manner gives recognition and credit to the originator whose ideas or information you have used. Ever heard the saying "Give credit where credit is due"?

Ben's Guide citations should have these elements:

Government agency (e.g. U.S. Government Printing Office)
Title of the part of the Web site you used, in quotation marks (e.g. "Ben's Guide (9-12): How Laws Are Made")
Name of complete Web site, in italics or underlined (e.g. Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids)
Date of publication or last revision (e.g. February 23, 2001)
Address for the page you used, in angle brackets (e.g. <../9-12/lawmaking/index.html>)
Date you accessed the page, in parentheses (e.g. August 27, 2001).

Citing Ben's Guide for a bibliography or references page:

U.S. Government Printing Office. Superintendent of Documents. "Ben's Guide: (9-12): How Laws Are Made." Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids. February 23, 2001. <../9-12/lawmaking/index.html> (August 27, 2001).

Citing Ben's Guide for a footnote or endnotes page:

²U.S. Government Printing Office, Superintendent of Documents, "Ben's Guide (9-12): How Laws Are Made," Ben's Guide to U.S. Government for Kids, February 23, 2001, <../9-12/lawmaking/index.html> (August 27, 2001).

The difference?

Bibliography/references:

The first line is at the left margin and any other lines are indented.
Elements are separated by periods.

Footnote/endnote:

The first line is indented and any other lines extend to the left margin.
Notes are numbered and should be in superscript style.
Elements are separated by commas, but end with a period.

NOTE: This model is based on the Chicago Manual of Style for citing Web sources.